FO: Flore Hat in Knit Picks Shine Sport

by exercisebeforeknitting

A baby hat in four days, can you believe it? That’s like taking a week to knit a bootie! This is one serious hat! Unfortunately, while I was quite sure that B’s head was 17″, she has apparently grown a bit since that measurement so that hat is too small. No matter, it will go to a baby due in late summer. Nevertheless, Beatrix will be your model because she’s all I have on hand. :-)

Pattern: Flore by KnitwhitsYarn: Knit Picks Shine Sport, remnants from other projects (colors: Violet, Orchid, Blush, Apricot and Grass, I believe)Needles: US 4Modifications: Since the suggested yarn was Tahki Cotton Classic which is a bit heavier than Shine Sport, I swatched, made some calculations and cast on 90 instead of 114 sts.

First of all, let me just say how much I love the finished product – it’s unbearably cute, cleverly designed and interesting to knit. Baby Kaya has a great one too in Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino too. The construction is well thought out and the petals are joined by a k2tog row, which cuts way down on the seaming. With those qualification, I must say that only a really, really, really special baby will receive one of these hats from me because both the knitting and finishing were, as Theresa suggested yesterday, “fiddly”. That’s nothing against the pattern authors at Knitwhits, it’s just the nature of the beast. I can’t think of any pattern modifications that would make this less painful to knit, but be forewarned that this is certainly a slogalong project.

To begin with, the pattern calls for two 16″ circular needles and a set of DPNs. That’s fine if you happen to own all of those needles in the appropriate size but I didn’t and there’s no way that I would ever buy so many duplicate needles for a baby hat (maybe for a sweater but certainly not for a baby hat). Thus, I was forced to fudge it a bit. I knit each new petal on DPNs and put the lower parts of the hat on a 32″ US 0 circular. Why? Because that’s all I had – it essentially functioned as a stitch holder, although I admit I spent a lot of time transferring pieces from one needle to another, something that might not have happened if I had not been too cheap to buy more needles. If you decide to make this hat, I guarantee that it will be easier if you follow instructions and use all of the suggested needles.

The finishing seemed to take forever, although my patience for end weaving and the like is minimal. Each layer had six tips to tack down so that the petal would lie flat. Six tack downs multiplied by five… that’s a real drag, if you ask me.

So there you have it: an absolutely adorable hat can be yours with a little crankiness and a lot of finishing! Take it for what it’s worth!